Homo ethicus, Animal amorale – Moralphilosophie und theologische Ethik im Licht des animal turn

Abstract

An animal-theological rereading of Cora Diamond In the light of the animal turn, Simone Horstmann asks to what extent the ideal image of a homo ethicus has often provided a surreptitious reason to exclude animals from the sphere of morally considerable beings. It is not unproblematic for them when theology regards ethical or moral behavior as a unique and exclusive feature of human beings; and when this does occur, then theology must explain in the same breath how it wants to shape its relationship to other living beings. It is common practice for humans to justify the exploitation and torment of other living beings with their claim to superiority and to cause immeasurable suffering to these creatures. By behaving in this way, people have to face the question of whether they have actually already forfeited any claim to be acting ethically. In her contribution, the author investigates the tension between homo ethicus and the idea of animal amorale derived from it, by asking how exactly (theological-) ethical reflection can work in view of the imbalance she has identified. For this purpose, the moral-philosophical considerations of the American philosopher Cora Diamond, which are relatively rarely received in German-speaking countries, are presented and contextualized. The author discovers astonishing references to core assumptions of theological-ethical theory formation which, in her opinion, are therefore suitable for productively challenging theological reflection, because Diamond’s moral philosophy represents an important revision of the classic animal welfare and animal rights approaches. While these approaches always refer to a criterion – usually characteristics, abilities or interests – and proceed from this to establish a ›moral status‹, Diamond counters this approach with the criticism that ethics that works in this way undermine our actual understanding of morality and almost its entire pragmatics as a whole and cannot do these phenomena justice.